STRADIVARI VIOLINS IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9166, 22 September 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

STRADIVARI VIOLINS IN ENGLAND.

Thk number of beautiful Stradivari violins in England has again been augmented. Some time ago one of the splendid specimens belonging to the great French player Delphin Alard—who died at an advanced age in February last—was secured by a Glasgow gentleman, and now another exquisitely preserved instrument by the greatest of the Cremonese makers has come to us from Italy. Ibis one which was made in 1716 for the Marchese Pamparati, and by-and-bye it drifted to Paris—for many years a home for these great fiddles. Some thirty years back it was in the possession of a player named Saint-Leon, but it ultimately became the property of an Italian artiste called Bertussi, from whom it has been purchased and brought across the Channel. The year 171(5 is not an unimportant one in the annals of " Strad" violins. The famous example called " the Cessol," and which was exhibited at the Albert Had show of violins during the currency of " the Inventions" at South Kensington, bears that date, as does also the most celebrated of them all—namely, the instrument which was baptised " the Messiah" by the enthusiastic man who found it after the death of the dealer Luigi Tarisio. The one just brought here is in perfect preservation, and may probably take rank with the other exceptional examples of this maker which have found owners in the British Isles, as its tone is powerful and sweet, and the price paid for it was close on £800.